The present invention is directed to a furnace that provides heated circulation air to an interior comfort space. More particularly the invention is directed to a gas control assembly for a forced air furnace that eliminates extra parts and provides for improved burner alignment and fitup.
Unless certain design features are provided, burners can be incorrectly installed upside down or backward. In addition, when burners are individually installed, the alignment of burner becomes a concern along with the requirement for an additional support for the individual burners. Many conventional burner support structures for forced air furnaces do not effectively function to shield flames from stray air currents and require multiple screws and intermediate parts. Furthermore, these conventional prior art support structures do not provide for design features which assure accurate burner alignment or prevent misassembly. Generally conventional support structures while requiring extra parts and fasteners, result in a continuing problem with respect to burner alignment and assembly.
It can therefore be seen that there is a continuing need in the field for a simple design which will provide for accurate burner alignment and assembly and which reduce the number of parts for the gas control assembly.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide for a gas control assembly which provides for improved burner alignment.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide for a burner support structure which assures accurate burner assembly.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a gas control assembly which can be easily assembled with a minimum of parts and fasteners.
The present invention is directed to a gas control assembly that provides for improved alignment for the burners and reduces the number of required parts for the complete assembly.
The complete assembly includes a rigid support frame, a ganged burner assembly and a manifold which is connected to a gas valve. The support frame has three continuous surfaces, roughly in the form of an inverted xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d which form a space in which to mount the burners. Ovals or equivalent means are embossed in the sides of the support which function to prevent the burners from being misaligned. Round protrusions or dimples of differing lengths are also included in the side walls and prevent the burners from being installed upside down or backward. When matched to an indexing notch in the ganged burner assembly, the burners and manifold will properly fit together. If the notch and a slot in the dimple are mismatched, the manifold will not fit into the support.
A punched and flared hole is also provided in one side of the support and the sheared edge with screw lances provide a tight tolerance by which to locate the manifold while requiring only two screws to hold the entire assembly together. The lances provide improved manifold alignment since the mounting holes are not subject to additional tolerance stack up present when using holes in bent flanges.
The ganged burner assembly provides the advantage of fewer parts to handle, and eliminates any alignment problems between burners. This design also eliminates additional support which would be required for individual burners. The burners assembly also contains an integrated flame sensor bracket and igniter bracket attachment. Incorporating these brackets into the burner assembly eliminates extra parts and fasteners while providing improving alignment and fitup.